With the Super Bowl behind us, teams are forced to move on from the 2022 season and look towards 2023. In a series of articles, we will recap the past season, and look at how teams are positioned at their skill positions for next September.
Dallas Cowboys
Current Available Cap Space: $13.501 Million
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The Dallas Cowboys were 1 of 3 teams in the NFC East to make the playoffs in 2022, finishing the season with a 12-5 record. They won their first round matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before bowing out to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round. Their offseason has been fairly eventful, starting off with franchising tagging their explosive running back Tony Pollard, which resulted in them cutting the fading Ezekiel Elliot to save money against the cap.
As long as Jerry Jones is the owner of the Cowboys, it is hard to envision the organization ever fully embracing a rebuild, but the team did restructure a number of contracts to reduce their cap hit as the offseason festivities officially began. They most recently used some of that space to acquire wide receiver Brandin Cooks in a trade with the Houston Texans for minimal draft capital.
Despite their regular season success, the playoffs have been a disappointment in Dallas for a number of years. In spite of that, they’re returning most of their major players including oft-criticized head coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Dak Prescott for another chance at redemption.
Coaching:
Mike McCarthy entered the Dallas Cowboys organization as head coach in 2020 after 13 seasons leading the Green Bay Packers. While he does have a Super Bowl victory to his name, it’s widely believed that while coaching Aaron Rogers in his prime, McCarthy should have more playoff success on his resume.
That has carried over to his tenure in Dallas, as his playoff victory this past season is the first in 3 years with the organization despite going 24-10 in the previous two regular seasons. McCarthy has the confidence of owner Jerry Jones – for now – and will hope for a little more injury luck in 2023, particularly along the once dominant offensive line to lead the team on a deep playoff run.
McCarthy is known as a brilliant offensive game planner, despite what his critics say, and deserves credit for Dak Prescott’s 2021 season where he threw for 4,449 yards and a career high 37 touchdowns. His inability to manage the clock in crucial times has hampered his team’s overall performance, which likely makes this coming season a do or die affair for McCarthy and his hand selected coaching staff.
Kellen Moore was a rare holdover from the previous regime when McCarthy was hired in 2020. Although McCarthy gave Moore a large amount of credit for Prescott’s offensive explosion in the 2019 campaign, which included over 4,900 yards passing yards and 30 TDs, after Prescott threw for a league high 15 interceptions in only 12 starts this past season, it seems that the shine had worn off. As a result, the organization decided to part ways with Moore after this past season.
McCarthy publicly talked about the difference in philosophies between himself and Moore since the firing, stating in an interview that Moore “wants to light the scoreboard up, but I want him to run the damn ball so I can rest my defense.” Brian Schottenheimer was promoted to offensive coordinator after spending a season as an offensive consultant. However, by most accounts, that is in title alone, as McCarthy looks to be setting himself up to be the offensive play caller in 2023.
Schottneheimer’s offensive schemes seem to fit the mold of what McCarthy looks to utilize in Dallas, as over his 3 different tenures as offensive coordinator he implemented a run heavy offense that relied on play action, particularly during his successful tenure in Seattle. With McCarthy there to call the plays on gameday, the Dallas offense is less susceptible to succumb to the predictable playbook that Schottenheimer’s offenses have been criticized for, so this pairing will be interesting to monitor this season.
Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn will enter his third year with the team, and has consistently improved the unit year over year, despite dealing with a rash of injuries. He inherited a defense that ranked 28th in the league in points per game against in 2020, and finished the 2022 season as the 6th best team in that category.
Despite Quinn’s background as a defensive line coach, his work with linebackers over the past few seasons, particularly the utilization and emergence of Micah Parsons, have boosted his stock across the NFL. He doesn’t seem to be too far away from a second head coaching position should he opt to explore that route. Quinn’s aggressive defensive approach has led the Cowboys to the top of the league in defensive takeaways over the course of the past 3 seasons, and teams around the league are once again taking notice.
Quarterbacks:
Dak Prescott was only able to suit up for 12 games this season, but was on pace for over 4,000 yards and 32 touchdowns over a 17 game schedule. Unfortunately he was also on pace for 21 interceptions, and threw a league high 15 despite not playing a full compliment of games. This was only the 2nd of his 7 seasons where he missed games due to injury, the other being 2020 when he missed most of the year with an ankle dislocation/fracture.
Prescott, who signed a massive 4 year extension in 2021, only has 2 years left on his deal, but has now twice restructured the contract to give the Cowboys more cap space to help acquire weapons. He also seems to have a good rapport with Jones, which is key to surviving in the Dallas organization. Prescott’s biggest issue is his consistency, as displayed in this year’s playoffs.
He was electric in the Cowboys win against the Buccaneers, but was almost a non factor in their loss to the 49ers, which has begun to raise the volume on Cowboys fans who want to see a change at the position. The Cowboys are saying all the right things in support of Prescott entering the year, but in an organization that has as much pressure on it as the Cowboys, Prescott has a lot to prove in 2023.
Behind Prescott is only Will Grier, a 27 year old journeyman who has played in a grand total of 2 games since being drafted in 2019. With Cooper Rush a free agent, the Cowboys should be looking to re-sign him or add some veteran talent as insurance behind Prescott. Rush actually performed well in Prescott’s absence, leading the team to a 4-1 record, so there might be some pressure from the fanbase to bring him back for another run.
Wide Receivers/Running Backs:
The Cowboys went all in on on budding superstar CeeDee Lamb prior to the 2022 season by trading away #1 receiver Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns. Lamb showed them this was the right choice, after catching 107 passes for 1,359 yards and 9 touchdowns, all career highs. He’s as explosive as they come, utilizing his quickness to create separation and despite not being graded as an elite route runner coming out of college, he’s shown great improvements in that area. He’s a threat every time the ball is in his hands, and the Cowboys were lucky to land him at 17 in the draft. They’ll no doubt be working on an extension, and still have the 5th year option for the 2024 season to give them time to make the numbers work on what is sure to be a massive deal for the 23 year old.
The Cowboys recently traded for disgruntled receiver Brandin Cooks, who was fed up with the excessively long rebuild taking place in Houston. Cooks, 29, is certainly on the downswing of his career, but is a consistent and reliable number 2 option for Dallas. He’s surpassed 1,000 yards receiving in 6 of his 9 seasons in the league, and brings with him the vertical threat that the team was missing in 2022.
He managed to lead the Texans in receptions and receiving yards despite being outspoken about his desire to be traded and being sat down at the end of the season after having his captaincy taken away. He has now been traded 4 times in his career, and has built a reputation of being difficult to deal with, but at this stage he could be a perfect fit if he accepts a secondary role and keeps his focus on the field.
27-year-old Michael Gallup was given a 5 year extension in the 2022 offseason despite a major ACL injury midway through the 2021 campaign. Unfortunately he barely topped his 2021 receiving numbers this past season despite playing in 5 extra games. While Gallup only sports a career reception percentage of 55%, he’s a downfield threat that has made it a habit to go up and grab contested balls, but to rely on him returning to top form at this point may be a long shot. His role looks to be diminishing even more with the move to acquire Cooks, although on the field he might be better suited for the WR3 role, despite his hefty paycheck.
Noah Brown finished the season with the second most receiving yards by a wide receiver for the Cowboys, but has already signed a 1 year deal with the Houston Texans as a free agent. Late season veteran addition T.Y. Hilton was the team’s 4th leading wide receiver, despite only playing in 3 games with the club. KaVontae Turpin made the pro bowl as a returner, but his contributions to the offense were virtually nonexistent.
There was a very serious need for receiver help in Dallas, but with the trade for Cooks, the slotting seems to fit a lot better along the offense. If Gallup can return to form as the player that earned his contract extension, and Cooks lets his play on the field do the talking, the Cowboys will be in much better shape at wide receiver entering 2023.
The Cowboys got solid contributions from the tight end position in 2022, but were probably hoping for more of a breakout season from Dalton Schultz after the club franchise tagged him for 2022. While there was talk that Dallas would tag him again for this season, they instead opted to use that tag on running back Tony Pollard, leaving Schultz as a free agent. Schultz has recently joined Brown in Houston on another 1 year deal.
The Cowboys could hold tight and rely on a breakout year from 2022 draftee Jake Ferguson, who had solid underlying numbers despite limited playing time. Ferguson hauled in an impressive 86.4% of his targets, and averaged 9.2 yards per reception to go along with his 2 touchdowns, however his blocking left much to be desired. Tight ends typically take an extra year or two to develop in the NFL, and Dallas might sit back and hope for a breakout sophomore season. On the other hand, Jones has never been known for his patience and he may opt to take one of the many high end tight end prospects that are entering this year’s draft.
Running Backs:
The Dallas Cowboys have officially turned the page on the Ezekiel Elliott era. Elliot has recorded 4x 1,000+ yard rushing campaigns and 4 seasons of double digit touchdowns in his 6 years in Dallas. Unfortunately, he’s clearly lost the explosiveness that led him to 3 Pro Bowls, as his yards per carry average dropped to 3.8 in 2022. McCarthy and Jones were as loyal as they could be to Elliott, giving him the majority of the red zone attempts in 2022, which resulted in a team leading 12 rushing touchdowns, but at the end of the day he’s best utilized as a short yardage back, and the Cowboys could no longer justify the massive cap hit for a limited role.
Thus the Tony Pollard era begins in full after the Cowboys used the franchise tag on him for the upcoming season. Pollard had 37 less rush attempts than Elliott this past year, but thanks to his impressive 5.2 yards per rush average he out gained his backfield mate by 131 yards. A feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he only saw double digit carries once through the first 5 weeks of the season, before taking on more of a leading role.
Pollard also brought a pass catching element out of the backfield, with 39 receptions for 371 yards and 3 touchdowns, to go with the 9 he scored on the ground. Pollard has shown the ability to handle the increased workload he’ll be expected to shoulder for the Cowboys, and they’ll hope to work out an extension in the near future.
With Elliott gone, the Cowboys will have to improve their depth, as Malik Davis is currently the only other running back on the roster. The undrafted sophomore has some pass catching ability, but probably lacks the size the Cowboys would like to properly compliment Pollard in the backfield.
Offensive Line:
The Cowboys quietly restructured their offensive line in 2022. The once dominant unit seemed to have fallen apart over the past few seasons, starting with Travis Fredrick’s re-retirement in 2019, La’el Collins’ season long suspension and subsequent release in 2020, Tyron Smith’s continuing health issues causing him to play in only 17 games over the past 3 years, and Connor Williams being let go in free agency after not living up to the team’s expectations.
The club traded up in the 4th round of the 2020 draft to grab new starting center Trevor Biadasz, who started 16 games for the Cowboys in 2022. He’s fundamentally sound, and although he can get sometimes be overpowered in one-on-one situations, being flanked by 8 time all-pro Zack Martin certainly helps to hide any warts he might have. Turning undrafted tackle Terence Steel into a viable full time starter before he suffered a season ending injury is a testament to both the scouting staff as well as the offensive line coaches. That same staff also picked Tyler Smith 24th in the 2022 draft, which was considered a reach by many at the time, but they have done a magnificent job with the 21 year old, considering he was slated to start his career at guard and was moved to tackle after another major injury to Tyron Smith.
They have a hole at guard with Connor McGovern signing in Buffalo that needs to be filled, either internally or through the draft, as it looks unlikely at this point they will find the solution in free agency. The offensive line has been a strength for the Cowboys, and they continue to build the group season after season despite the unexpected roster turnover they’ve endured.
Defense:
Micah Parsons.
He’s almost good enough to just write down his name and say that covers the entirety of the defense. After a slow start to his career, Dan Quinn unleashed the do it all linebacker/edge defender upon opposing quarterbacks, which resulted in finishing second in voting the last two years for defensive player of the year honours. He has 26.5 sacks over the past 2 seasons, and can play in coverage almost as well as he can rush the passer. He’s truly an elite game changer on the defensive side that will only get better as he continues to learn the intricacies of the NFL game.
He’s not the only defender of note for the Cowboys, however. Demarcus Lawerence played a full season in 2022, and was able to get 6 sacks in a more situational pass rusher role. While his contract is a little high for where he’s at in his career, he’s also a locker room leader for the defense, so the Cowboys would be wise to let him continue to help develop their younger defensive players. The Cowboys also added another notorious locker room leader in Stephon Gilmore to help in the secondary.
While Gilmore has lost a step over the past couple seasons, he’s still a strong man on man defender, and doesn’t have to be matched up against the oppositions #1 wide receiver week after week with young ball hawk Trevon Diggs working opposite of him. Re-signing Leighton Vander Esch also has to get the Cowboys faithful excited. He had the potential to be one of the most electric sideline to sideline linebackers in the league, but unfortunately has dealt with serious neck injuries throughout his career. With only the first year of his new contract guaranteed, this is a solid deal by the Cowboys to bring back a fan favourite.
Overall, the Cowboys will be entering the 2023 season as a solid if unspectacular team. They did solidify their wide receiving core, and you cannot rule out Jerry Jones making a push for another flashy target like Odell Beckham JR, who has had multiple visits with the club. It may not be necessary, however, with a solid offensive line and McCarthy ready to commit to the run, this could be a huge year for Tony Pollard, who has the potential to be the season leader in scrimmage yards.
This team won’t be judged by its performance in the regular season, as they need to start putting together wins in the playoffs, or the patience of Jerry Jones and the Cowboys fans will run out. This is a massive prove it year for the entire coaching staff and Dak Prescott to show that Jones’s faith in them is well placed.
-Devon Gallant
Twitter: @DevGallant
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.